


Memories Painted With Much Brighter Ink

by agentaace



Series: Taakitz Week 2018 [1]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: M/M, One-Shot, could be post-story and song, could be pre-suffering game, he was already technically dead!, kravitz is keats, kravitz will be fine!, major character death sounds way worse than it is i promise!, mostly!, this is for taakitz week day 1, up to you
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-26
Updated: 2018-03-26
Packaged: 2019-04-08 05:11:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14097969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agentaace/pseuds/agentaace
Summary: Kravitz is hit with some powerful necromancy specifically designed to take down reapers, but Taako isn't letting his boy go that easily.





	Memories Painted With Much Brighter Ink

**Author's Note:**

> Today's prompt was: "Is there anything I can do?" And I made it sad!
> 
> Title is from "When" by Dodie Clark
> 
> Edit 3/30/18: Added in my italics! Forgot AO3 required coding!

When the necromancer’s spell hits Kravitz he immediately drops to the ground, unconscious at best. Taako’s world stills, and he can feel his heart stop beating for a second. Then he’s lunging at Kravitz as his form begins to fade, shooting a level six magic missile at the necromancer without looking to see if it hits. He lands on his knees next to Kravitz, pulling him into his lap and running his hands through his hair.

“Nonononono, you’re gonna be alright,” Taako mutters frantically, feeling no pulse and not knowing if that matters. Kravitz is completely still, and cold, and his white shirt is turning darker by the second. Now it is no longer Kravitz’s form that is fading, but the area surrounding them. When Taako looks up, he sees the world has gone into shades of grey and black, and a dark, spectral figure is standing over both of them. Raven feathers swirl in the air, caught in a breeze that Taako can’t feel.

“Fix him,” Taako demands, one arm wrapped around Kravitz’s shoulders as he glares at the Raven Queen.

“I cannot,” She says stiffly, unmoving. Taako clutches Kravitz closer, gritting his teeth.

“Then can you _please_ direct me to a god who isn’t useless!” Taako snaps. The Raven Queen takes a step back. “What’s the point of being the death goddess if you can’t undo this!”

“Kravitz has been my best employee for a very long time. I assure you, I am not deriving any joy from his passing.” An edge enters the goddess’s voice, and the air around her seems to grow colder, the breeze pushing the feathers getting wilder. Taako closes his eyes, shaking in anger and frustration. Kravitz lays in his lap, eyes closed, still, his front now covered in blood that is much darker than it is supposed to be. 

“Is there _anything_ I can do?” Taako asks, and if his voice breaks just a bit he’d never admit it. A part of Taako thinks that he should have expected this, because when have nice things ever lasted? He gets a handful of months with a man he could fall in love with, and they’re torn away, just like that. But like fuck is he just going to take that.

“The necromancy he was hit with was incredibly dark, and incredibly powerful. I cannot heal him,” The Raven Queen says, her voice softer as the breeze quiets down. She’s mourning, too, Taako can feel it. His shoulders slump, the anger holding him up slowly dissolving into numbness. The Raven Queen holds up a finger. “However. Perhaps your own patron goddess will be of more use.” It takes Taako a second to realize who she’s talking about.

“...Istus. She can undo this?” Taako asks, a spark of hope lighting somewhere inside of him. She only nods, and with a wave of her hand Taako finds himself sitting instead on the floor of the temple in Refuge, recently rebuilt. Kravitz still rests in his lap, Taako’s arm still around his shoulders with the other hand buried in his hair. His face is too pale, starting to take on an ashy grey color. If Taako wants to fix this, he’ll have to do it quick.

Thankfully, Istus somehow knew he was coming. She stands next to the altar, her face looking almost how Taako feels. “Is that… Kravitz?” She asks.

“Yeah. Can you fix him?” Taako asks bluntly. Istus hurries over to the two and kneels down, putting a hand on Kravitz’s face. It’s colder than normal, even for him. Her eyebrows furrow, and she takes a step back.

“His soul is very badly damaged-”

“ _But can you fix him?_ ” Taako interrupts, already having heard that several times.

Istus sighs, and Taako feels his entire body tense again. “Possibly. I can revert him to a form from before he became a reaper,” As she speaks she draws a very long knitted scarf out of the air. “Therefore the spell would have no effect on him.” She begins picking through the scarf, following different lines of color and embroidery.

“Do it,” Taako says without hesitation. Istus glances up and him and nods, then starts to rearrange threads. As the thread becomes longer than she expects, Istus frowns again. “What’s wrong?”

“A very long series of events led to this outcome. I would have to reset him back more than I expected.” She looks up at him again. “I assume you want me to continue regardless?” Taako nods again, impatient, and Istus cuts out a thread and re-ties it onto the top of the scarf. Istus gives one last warning: “He will not remember anything past this point in his life.”

“As long as he’s alive, I don’t care,” Taako says firmly. A part of him worries that this might be worse than losing him, having him close but far away at the same time. But he stamps that down, he’ll worry about that when Kravitz is alright again.

Istus ties off the thread, and then looks down at Kravitz. Taako follows her gaze, sees Kravitz’s form begin to shift. He starts to get smaller, and then he keeps getting smaller. Taako glances back up at Istus, wondering if something went wrong. “Kravitz got very sick as a child, and did not get better for a very long time,” Istus explains. “His siblings attempted to heal him with very powerful necromancy. It went wrong, and Kravitz died. The Raven Queen took pity on him and employed him.” Taako only nods and looks back at Kravitz, who now looks similar to Angus in stature and youth.

“Then this is him before he got sick,” Taako says in a low voice, mostly to himself. Istus nods.

“He will sleep for some time. But when he wakes, he will be alive, and will now get a second chance at his life.” Istus along with their surroundings begin to fade, and Taako manages to tear his eyes away from Kravitz right before everything turns to white.

“Istus, why are you doing this?” He asks.

“If anyone deserves it after everything that he’s done, it’s Kravitz, wouldn’t you agree?” Istus smiles.

“Yeah,” Taako agrees softly. When he looks up again, Istus is gone. But Kravitz is warm.


End file.
